Purana

Created by Jijith Nadumuri at 25 Jul 2011 10:40 and updated at 25 Jul 2011 10:40

VISHNU PURANA NOUN

vp.1.1	Invocation. Maitreya inquires of his teacher, Parasara, the origin and nature of the universe. Parasara performs a rite to destroy the demons: reproved by Vasishtha, he desists: Pulastya appears, and bestows upon him divine knowledge: he repeats the Vishnu Purana. Vishnu the origin, existence, and end of all things.
vp.1.1	Having adored Vishnu 7, the lord of all, and paid reverence to Brahma and the rest 8; having also saluted the spiritual preceptor 9; I will narrate a Purana equal in sanctity to the Vedas.
vp.1.2	Prayer of Parasara to Vishnu. Successive narration of the Vishnu Purana. Explanation of Vasudeva: his existence before creation: his first manifestations. Description of Pradhana or the chief principle of things. Cosmogony. Of Prakrita, or material creation; of time; of the active cause. Developement of effects; Mahat; Ahankara; Tanmatras; elements; objects of sense; senses; of the mundane egg. Vishnu the same as Brahma the creator; Vishnu the preserver; Rudra the destroyer.
vp.1.8	(From the Vayu Purana.)
vp.1.22	Dominion over different provinces of creation assigned to different beings. Universality of Vishnu. Four varieties of spiritual contemplation. Two conditions of spirit. The perceptible attributes of Vishnu types of his imperceptible properties. Vishnu every thing. Merit of hearing the first book of the Vishnu Purana.
vp.1.22	Thus, Brahman, has the first portion of this Purana been duly revealed to you: listening to which, expiates all offences. The man who hears this Purana obtains the fruit of bathing in the Pushkara lake 11 for twelve years, in the month of Kartik. The gods bestow upon him who hears this work the dignity of a divine sage, of a patriarch, or of a spirit of heaven.
vp.3.6	Accomplished in the purport of the Puranas, Vyasa compiled a Pauranik Sanhita, consisting of historical and legendary traditions, prayers and hymns, and sacred chronology 6. He had a distinguished disciple, Suta, also termed Romaharshana, and to him the great Muni communicated the Puranas. Suta had six scholars, Sumati, Agnivarchas, Mitrayu, sansapayana, Akritavrana, who is also called Kasyapa, and Savarni. The three last composed three fundamental Sanhitas; and Romaharshana himself compiled a fourth, called Romaharshanika. The substance of which four Sanhitas is collected into this Vishnu() Purana.
vp.3.6	acquainted with the Puranas enumerate eighteen, or the Brahma, Padma, Vaishnava, saiva, Bhagavata, Naradiya, Markandeya, agneya, Bhavishyat, Brahma Vaivartta, Lainga, Varaha, Skanda, Vamana, Kaurmma, Matsya, Garuda, Brahmanda. The creation of the world, and its successive reproductions, the genealogies of the patriarchs and kings, the periods of the Manus, and the transactions of the royal dynasties, are narrated in all these Puranas. This Purana which I have repeated to you, Maitreya, is called the Vaishnava, and is next in the series to the Padma; and in every part of it, in its narratives of primary and subsidiary creation, of families, and of periods, the mighty Vishnu is declared in this Purana 7.
vp.6.8	Conclusion of the dialogue between Parasara and Maitreya. Recapitulation of the contents of the Vishnu Purana: merit of hearing it: how handed down. Praises of Vishnu. Concluding prayer.
vp.6.8	I HAVE now explained to you, Maitreya, the third kind of worldly dissolution, or that which is absolute and final, which is, liberation and resolution into eternal spirit 1. I have related to you primary and secondary creation, the families of the patriarchs, the periods of the Manwantaras, and the genealogical histories (of the kings). I have repeated to you, in short, who were desirous of hearing it, the imperishable Vaishnava Purana, which is destructive of all sins, the most excellent of all holy writings, and the means of attaining the great end of man. If there is any thing else you wish to hear, propose your question, and I will answer it.
vp.6.8	Parasara. I have related to you this Purana, which is equal to the Vedas in sanctity, and by hearing which all faults and sins whatever are expiated. In this have been described to you the primary and secondary creation, the families of the patriarchs, the Manwantaras, the regal dynasties; the gods, Daityas, Gandharbas, serpents, Rakshasas, Yakshas, Vidyadharas, Siddhas, and heavenly nymphs; Munis endowed with spiritual wisdom, and practisers of devotion; the distinctions of the four castes, and the actions of the most eminent amongst men; holy places on the earth, holy rivers and oceans, sacred mountains, and legends of the truly wise; the duties of the different tribes, and the observances enjoined by the Vedas. By hearing this, all sins are at once obliterated. In this also the glorious Hari has been revealed, the cause of the creation, preservation, and destruction of the world; the soul of all things, and himself all things: by the repetition of whose name man is undoubtedly liberated from all sins, which fly like wolves that are frightened by a lion. The repetition of his name with devout faith is the best remover of all sins, destroying them as fire purifies the metal from the dross. The stain of the Kali age, which ensures to men sharp punishments in hell, is at once effaced by a single invocation of Hari. He who is all that is, the whole egg of Brahma, with Hiranyagarbha, Indra, Rudra, the adityas, the Aswins, the winds, the Kinnaras, the Vasus, the Sadhyas,
vp.6.8	knoweth all things, who is the form of all things, being without form himself, and of whom whatever is, from mount Meru to an atom, all consists he, the glorious Vishnu, the destroyer of all sin is described in this Purana. By hearing this Purana an equal recompense is obtained to that which is derived from the performance of an Aswamedha sacrifice, or from fasting at the holy places Prayaga, Pushkara, Kurukshetra, or Arbuda. Hearing this Purana but once is as efficacious as the offering of oblations in a perpetual fire for a year. The man who with well governed passions bathes at Mathura on the twelfth day of the month Jyeshtha 5, and beholds (the image of) Hari, obtains a great recompense; so does he who with mind fixed upon Kesava attentively recites this Purana. The man who bathes in the waters of the Yamuna on the twelfth lunation of the light fortnight of the month in which the moon is in the mansion Jyeshtha, and who fasts and worships Achyuta in the city of Mathura, receives the reward of an uninterrupted Aswamedha. Beholding the degree of prosperity enjoyed by others of eminence, through the merits of their descendants, a man s paternal ancestors, his parents and their parents, exclaim, "Whosoever of our descendants, having bathed in the Yamuna and fasted, will worship Govinda in Mathura, in the light fortnight of Jyeshtha, will secure for us eminent exaltation; for we shall be elevated by the merits of our posterity!" A man of good extraction will present
vp.6.8	al cakes to his fortunate ancestors in the Yamuna, having worshipped Janarddana in the light fortnight of Jyeshtha. But the same degree of merit that a man reaps front adoring Janarddana at that season with a devoted heart, and from bathing in the Yamuna, and effecting the liberation of his progenitors by offering to them on such an occasion obsequial cakes, he derives also from hearing with equal devotion a section of this Purana. This Purana is the best of all preservatives for those who are afraid of worldly existence,
vp.6.8	This Purana, originally composed by the Rishi Narayana(), was communicated by Brahma to Ribhu; he related it to Priyavrata, by whom it was imparted to Bhaguri. Bhaguri recited it to Tamasitra 6, and he to Dadicha, who gave it to Saraswata. From the last Bhrigu received it, who imparted it to Purukutsa, and he taught it to Narmada. The goddess delivered it to Dhritarashtra the Naga king, and to Purana of the same race, by whom it was repeated to their monarch Vasuki. Vasuki communicated it to Vatsa, and he to aswatara, from whom it successively proceeded to Kambala and Elapatra. When the Muni Vedasiras descended to Patala, he there received the whole Purana from these Nagas, and communicated it to Pramati. Pramati consigned it to the wise Jatukarna, and he taught it to many other holy persons. Through the blessing of Vasishtha it came to my knowledge, and I have now, Maitreya, faithfully imparted it to you. You will teach it, at the end of the Kali age, to samika 7. Whoever hears this great mystery, which removes the contamination of the Kali, shall be freed from all his sins. He who hears this every day acquits himself of his daily obligations to ancestors, gods, and men. The great and rarely attainable merit that a man acquires by the gift of a brown cow, he derives from hearing ten chapters of this Purana 8. He who hears the entire Purana, contemplating in his mind Achyuta, who is all things, and of whom all things are made; who is the stay of the whole world, the
vp.6.8	le of spirit; who is knowledge, and that which is to be known; who is without beginning or end, and the benefactor of the gods obtains assuredly the reward that attends the uninterrupted celebration of the Aswamedha rite. He who reads and retains with faith this Purana,

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